EUDRAGIT®

Precision medication

Until the 1950s, all oral medication, even the most modern, had one big disadvantage: It was not possible to control the time or the release location of the active substances. The development of EUDRAGIT® by Röhm & Haas GmbH in Darmstadt was the solution to this problem. When the first drugs came onto the market in a EUDRAGIT® coating, a new chapter in pharmaceutical history had begun.

EUDRAGIT® products are special polymers with varying degrees of solubility. The research department at Röhm made use of this property. The first drug coatings developed in 1953 were alkaline soluble and therefore resistant to stomach acids. The active substances were therefore not released in the stomach, but in the intestine, where they were to be activated. Variants of this kind of EUDRAGIT® are still used to coat solid drugs taken orally, such as tablets, capsules or granules. The first enhancement to EUDRAGIT® came at the end of the 1950s, when a pill coating that dissolves in stomach acid came onto the market. In the meantime, other variants of EUDRAGIT® have become available, which can also control the time at which substances are released.

These are called retard preparations, are resistant to stomach acid and continue to work throughout the intestinal tract, increasing considerably the efficiency of certain therapies and applications. EUDRAGIT® research and manufacturing today take place at the Evonik sites in Darmstadt, Weiterstadt and Worms